Dec 4 Travel Options in Lincoln!

Shoppers and visitors to Lincoln over the festive period are encouraged to make the mostof the city’s special Park &amp; Ride services.New arrangements have been put in place especially to meet the extra influx of visitors atthis time of year.

But there is also good news for regular Park & Ride users because the service is beingextended and improved in the New Year.During the Lincoln Christmas Market – which the Park &amp; Ride Service (normally operatedout of Waitrose in Nettleham Road) – will be closed. From December 7 to 9, TheChristmas Market Park &amp; Ride will operate from the Lincolnshire Showground, north ofLincoln.

After reverting back to Waitrose, Nettleham Road, the service will continue as usual, untilChristmas week. Then it will be temporarily relocated to Bishop Grosseteste University, inNewport, where it will offer the Christmas Bus Service from December 18 to 23.From December 27 to 30 people Park & Ride will, once again, be operating its Saturdaytimetable. There will be no service on New Year’s Day – but normal services will resumeon January 2. Lincoln’s Park & Ride service, which was devised by Lincoln BIG in collaboration with

Stagecoach East Midlands and Waitrose, has become increasingly popular since itslaunch in February.Its popularity has led to Lincoln BIG – which has been supporting the city’s Walk & Rideservice alongside Lincolnshire County Council – to decide to end its sponsorship of thatservice and plough more resources into the Park &amp; Ride operation.

Lincoln BIG Chief Executive Matt Corrigan: “After supporting Walk & Ride with more than£50,000 of sponsorship over a period of years, we felt it would make more sense to putour resources into creating a new City Centre Travel Zone, incorporating the Park & Rideservice, as well as other local buses.

“The changes have been instigated by Lincoln BIG as we feel it will provide a betterservice when the new bus station opens and a more effective use of our funding, whichcomes from our City Centre business ratepayers.

The new services will extend Park & Ride to create a loop with three new stops in the CityCentre.*The service will be more frequent. The Park & Ride service runs every 15 minutes, asopposed to Walk &amp; Ride which is 20 minutes, and services to and from the Cathedral andthe new bus station, which will incorporate other local buses, will be every five to sevenminutes, on average.*More regular. Services will start earlier in the morning and finish later at night and therewill no longer be a gap in service in the afternoon, which has been one of the maindisadvantages of the Walk & Ride service, as the Walk & Ride buses are also used forthe school runs.*Cheaper, with a new all-day hop-on-hop-off fare, priced at £2.50 - £1.50 (single).*Cover all of the most popular stops, including Newport Arch, The Cathedral, Silver Streetand the new bus station.*Include a Park &amp; Ride option at no extra cost. Anyone using Park & Ride at Waitrose willalso be able to use City Centre Zone buses as much as they want when they buy a Park &amp;Ride ticket.Final details of the plans are being worked on, with a view to starting as soon as the newbus station is up and running in January.